The country star returns to Grand Rapids for a homecoming show Friday as part of The Intersection’s Rock the Lot series. ‘Life is good,’ Ballard tells Local Spins.
Feeling like “screaming and jumping and doing cartwheels”: Frankie Ballard on his first No. 1 hit.
By John Sinkevics
LocalSpins.com
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As an “up-and-coming” country artist, it took West Michigan’s Frankie Ballard 10 years of nose-to-the-grindstone work in the music business to land his first No. 1 hit on the Billboard and Mediabase country charts.
So, the Battle Creek native and Western Michigan University alum was understandably pumped up when “Helluva Life” soared to that coveted spot in March and was later certified as his first gold record.
“I can barely articulate it properly,” Ballard, 31, told Local Spins. “I’m so excited. I feel like a kid again. All of a sudden, I was snapped back into those daydreams … thinking I was Elvis or something in the shower. I felt like running through the streets, screaming and jumping and doing cartwheels. It was amazing.”
Not surprisingly, the success of “Helluva Life” and Ballard’s “Sunshine & Whiskey” album – his first on the Warner Bros. label, peaking at No. 5 on the country chart – has put the now-Nashville-based singer in the national spotlight. He appeared recently on NBC’s “Today Show” and TBS’s “Conan,” and rubbed elbows with fellow country stars at the 2014 ACM Awards show. (Check out the official video below for “Helluva Life,” which has racked up more than 2 million views on YouTube.)
Dynamic Performer: Ballard at a Michigan show.
But on Friday, Ballard will return to one of his favorite West Michigan haunts to play to a “hometown” crowd, performing outdoors in Grand Rapids as part of The Intersection’s Rock the Lot summer concert series. Brian Lorente & The Usual Suspects will open the show. Get details and tickets online at sectionlive.com.
“I’m really fired up about that one just because of the hometown thing,” Ballard says of The Intersection, where he cut his teeth as a young singer. “I’ve always loved that place. It’s just a great spot for music. They’ve been really supportive of me.”
Indeed, although Ballard moved to Nashville from Kalamazoo several years ago, he’s convinced that the die-hard devotion of his West Michigan fan base laid the foundation for his recent chart-topping achievements. He was still in Michigan in 2008 when he won Kenny Chesney’s Next Big Star competition, later signing with Reprise Records for a self-titled album before shifting to Warner Bros.
WEST MICHIGAN: BALLARD’S ‘BREAD-AND-BUTTER’ HOME BASE
“I was up there getting fans, building my chops. It made me more of a commodity in Nashville because I had something going already,” he says. “That’s my bread-and-butter, my home base, where most of my fans are.”
Ballard in concert.
Those fans appreciate his dynamic stage presence and the devotion to his craft, something he says has been enhanced by a “team effort” at Warner Bros.
“I’ve been making a living with music for 10 years now. I don’t mind if they call me an overnight success, as long as the word ‘success’ is at the end of the sentence,” Ballard quips. “I love making music for a living, I love the recording aspect, I love the live performing aspect of it. … Life is good.”
As for building on that first No. 1 hit: “I hope to have about 30 more,” he says.
That means keeping the pedal to the metal, promoting his latest single, the title track from “Sunshine & Whiskey,” and bolstering his live show. His Grand Rapids concert is wedged between tour stops in Wisconsin on Thursday and Virginia on Saturday, and he’ll be crisscrossing the country all summer long.
“I’m going to put my head down and churn in the mud for the next six months before I even look up,” he says. “Lord willing, I’m just trying to make the best music that I can make and as honest as I can make it, and if that moves people’s spirits, then that’s just such a huge blessing.”
Email John Sinkevics at jsinkevics@gmail.com.
Copyright 2014, Spins on Music
